


Alternate Iron Man

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Series: What Ifs And Role Reversals [6]
Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Awesome Pepper Potts, BAMF Christine, BAMF Pepper Potts, Christine-centric, F/M, I Don't Even Know, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark Friendship, Pepper&Christine, Tony Angst, Tony Being Tony, Tony Feels, a little bit of tony angst, and i like them, basically this is a nonsuperhero AU in which Tony still went though his IM arc, because I was mad that no one else seems to write Christine/ Tony, but i wanted to read it not write it, but they eventually stop fighting over tony because he's not worth it, here this is, honestly i wrote this, it takes some time, so i wrote something about them, still tho, then they do shots because why not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 14:55:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11946627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: When this all started Christine didn’t expect to actuallylikeTony Stark. Not the man he pretended to be, the one he showed the press and the one she first slept with when they met,Tony Stark. The man beneath the façade. When this all started she didn’t even know there was a man beneath the façade. Like many before her she mistook his arrogance, fast-talking, and easy answers as the whole of who he was but it hadn’t taken long for her to find out that was just a show.





	Alternate Iron Man

**Author's Note:**

> As the title suggests this is sort of an alternate take on Iron Man in which Tony still develops as a character and goes through the arc but he isn't Iron Man. He doesn't get picked up by terrorists, instead he finds things out through Christine.
> 
> Did y'all know there's like nothing for these two? Like 9 things and they're only the main pair for 2. Seriously, I was an offended pancake when I discovered this so now I'm like that mom stomping around the house talking about how I gotta do everything myself. So I wrote this. Hope y'all like it! Also it occurs to me that this sort of belongs in the 'What Ifs and Role Reversals' series I have so I've plopped it in there.

When this all started Christine didn’t expect to actually _like_ Tony Stark. Not the man he pretended to be, the one he showed the press and the one she first slept with when they met, _Tony Stark_. The man beneath the façade. When this all started she didn’t even know there _was_ a man beneath the façade. Like many before her she mistook his arrogance, fast-talking, and easy answers as the whole of who he was but it hadn’t taken long for her to find out that was just a show. She’s a reporter after all; it was her responsibility to know when there was something more to the story than what was shown. As soon as he mentioned his father that first night she knew something was off.

The man was well known for disliking his father so why mention him at all, and why mention him as a _hero_? The answer, of course, was that that answer was acceptable; something reporters usually took back to their desks and wrote about without ever questioning why a man who was well known for insulting the father he had a bad relationship with hailed him as a hero. So she dug deeper much to the annoyance of one Pepper Potts, who was so clearly in love with Tony it made Christine want to roll her eyes in pity. The first article she wrote on Tony wasn’t one that was popular and her editor hated it. She had wanted Christine to write something that either flamed him or worshiped him but they both knew that wasn’t Christine’s style. She only published it because it was intriguing in a way that didn’t usually go with Tony Stark. People already knew who he was, what he stood for, and Christine’s entire article called all of that into question. But it wasn’t one Tony’s fans or critics loved or even liked and her editor wanted more.

So she stuck around, occasionally popping back up in Tony’s life until she was more of a permanent fixture and now she was stuck. It wasn’t that she had abandoned her only reason for being around Tony- a story- it was that she had so many of them and none she thought the public was entitled to. There was so much to the man under the suit that she wouldn’t even know where to begin even if she wanted to, but she was expected to write _something_. That, and she was stupid enough to develop genuine feelings towards the man.

“You’re telling me you wouldn’t have sex with yourself to see if you were good in bed?” Tony asks and Christine wrinkles her nose and smacks Tony’s chest lightly.

“No you arrogant freak, who would do that?” she asks.

“I would totally that,” he says to absolutely no one’s surprise and he looked dead serious about it too. “Don’t look at me like that, I’m just saying the only way to objectively judge my sexpertise is to do myself. I feel like everyone has had this thought,” he says in his own defense.

“Literally no one has ever thought that, Tony. And I can assure you that most of the time you’re sexpertise is impressive. And even your off days aren’t as bad as my worst but you should know that my worst is bar set so low an ant couldn’t crawl under it,” she says and Tony laughs.

“Thanks. I think,” he says and he smiles. It’s genuine too, even though the compliment was backhanded. Tony, for all his flash and glitz, wasn’t actually that high on himself with the exception of his tech. In that area he talked himself up quite a bit but, in his defense, he’d earned that. Everywhere else it was something of a show he presented to the world and the show was extensive. The world had a different version of Tony Stark that one James Rhodes had, and Pepper had a different version entirely as well. And now Christine had her own version, which only served to make her feel worse about her reasoning for being in Tony’s bed to begin with.

“You should take it as a compliment, not many men get compliments from me,” she says. Not many women did either for that matter. Her mother always told her that her standards were too high but Christine thought that having high standards and being around people she genuinely liked was infinitely better than settling for sub par human connections out of fear of being alone. Her mother was weak, she’s never been fond of her, and her father wasn’t exactly a shining example of anything good. She’s always lived according to her own rules and she’ll continue to do that for as long as she saw fit. It didn’t fail her often.

“So I know. You’re pretty ruthless,” Tony says, grinning.

She smiles back, “if I were a man I’d be a go-getter,” she says and to her surprise Tony nods.

“Probably. You should see the Board get all confused when Pepper acts like me in there, it’s almost amusing,” he says.

Yet another surprise about Tony Stark- for all his being an absolute _asshole_ who apparently couldn’t remember the names of the people he slept with he wasn’t actually that misogynistic. Ignorant, more like, and Potts liked to call him on it often. The name thing, Christine has learned, was because he only took care to notice things _he_ deemed important. For some reason names weren’t in that list though she has told him in no uncertain terms how insulting that was. He proceeded to call her ‘Carrie’ for a week until she made a joke about Stephen King’s novel. He didn’t find it so amusing after that. It still took him another week to figure out her name though and she refused to tell him. Let him flounder in his own stupidity for a bit before finding out her name. In her defense he didn’t tend to forget names now so she taught him a lesson.

“I’m sure I wouldn’t find your assistant very amusing,” she says in a barbed tone. Potts didn’t like her much, jealous mostly, but Christine admired Pepper. Saying she was an assistant was insulting really, she was more than that to Tony and she has been for years. She was more like another business partner but one that was more willing to clean up Tony’s vast array of messes. She was good at what she did too, and protective of Tony despite the man needing very little protection from anything. They both knew what rich men could get away with and Tony rarely let people close enough to hurt him in other ways. That didn’t stop Potts from being protective of her employer. Christine might find the pining Pepper did foolish but she was still an admirable woman.

“You two would get along if you stopped being so catty,” Tony says and Christine raises an eyebrow.

“ _Catty_?” she asks, giving Tony a _look_.

“How else am I supposed to describe it? You two always go for each other’s throats when you’re in the same room,” he says.

“I go for everyone’s throats, don’t make Potts so special. Her reaction to me is the problem here,” she says. It was hardly like she was known for being _nice_ and she certainly wasn’t _catty_.

Tony sighs, “no idea why. She’s not like this with anyone else you know.” Because Tony didn’t _like_ anyone else he took home. That was odd to her but she’s always had a thing for banter and Tony… well half the time he was too drunk to care she thinks. Otherwise he’d pay more attention to who he brought home, he liked the banter too. But if you weren’t looking for conversation, well. Potts knew it too, and she wasn’t stupid enough to think that she was like the average one nigh stand either. The reason she was treated differently was because she was a threat to Potts’ feelings and Christine has never been very delicate on the feelings. She suspected that Tony was right though; she and Potts probably would get along if Potts weren’t so suspicious of her.

Not that she was without reason, she’s right after all.

That said she was getting steadily more annoyed of Tony’s confusion about Pepper’s actions so she decides to out the woman. “She’s in love with you, you idiot. She thinks I’m a threat so call your pit bull off,” she says.

Of all the reactions Tony could have had bursting out in laughter wasn’t one she thought he’d have. “Pepper is a sensible woman, Christine, there is no way she’s in love with me,” he says, leaning over and kissing her.

She gently pushes him back and he goes, “I’m an investigative journalist, Tony. I read the facts and the woman is in love with you. Deal with it.” Tony just smiles and shakes his head though, obviously not believing a single word.

*

Christine didn’t usually do much digging anymore, Tony typically answered her questions freely now, but when she finds some company files lingering around she’s curious. One thing had let to another, which lead to another, which led down roads she never saw coming. She knew what Tony’s company did, of _course_ she did, his involvement in war profiteering had been how they met. What she didn’t expect was to find that A- Tony had a policy in place for who they were supposed to sell weapons to, and B- that Obadiah Stane was almost certainly selling weapons to someone under the table. The numbers didn’t add up, Tony’s own words weren’t matching anything else, and after some snooping into Obadiah Stane the man had more than he should. It wasn’t hard to draw the conclusion but she didn’t get concrete proof until she started looking into where Tony’s bombs were being dropped. There was no way SI wasn’t selling weapons to terrorists and she knew it wasn’t Tony doing it, and Potts certainly wouldn’t. That left Obadiah.

By then she had already decided she had a moral obligation to tell Tony about this so when he goes to leave for work she steps in front of him. Off to the side she can see Potts roll her eyes but she ignores it. “You can’t go in,” she tells him and Tony cuts her off before she can continue.

“I know I’m a delight to be around but I have to make money, you know,” he says and Christine can’t help but roll her eyes.

“You’re a billionaire, you don’t need more money and that’s not what I’m talking about. I… look, I lied to you okay. I didn’t stick around because I actually like you- don’t look at me like that I like you _now_ , I just didn’t then. I wanted a story, one that would actually sell so here I am. I don’t even do much digging anymore and I haven’t written anything but I found some files and-” Tony cuts her off again.

“You went digging through my _files_!” he yells. Potts looks a mix of pleased and worried, which was an odd mix but Christine leaves it.

“Yeah, and your business partner is selling weapons to terrorists!” she yells back, wanting to get it out before Tony did something stupid like kick her out.

“This is fucking ridiculous, get out of my house,” he snaps. Well at least he was predictable.

“Tony, listen-” she starts but he doesn’t let her get far.

“I told you to get out,” he says in a soft, quiet tone.

For a moment Christine doesn’t know what to do with that because quiet and soft wasn’t Tony’s style. Finally though she turns a pleading look to Potts because she was the one he’d listen to here, “I’m not lying, Pepper. I wouldn’t do that.”

She gives Christine an appraising look, “seems odd that you’d claim you wouldn’t lie about this when you’ve been lying to Tony for months,” she says in a cold tone.

Fair point. “One man’s hurt feelings is hardly the same as lying about innocent people being bombed and you know it,” she says.

In front of her Tony scoffs, “oh so my feelings don’t matter then,” he says.

She rolls her eyes, “oh give it up, that isn’t what I said and you know it. I… was wrong and I shouldn’t have wormed my way into your life just to get information. It’s cruel. But I’m not lying about this. I’m not lying,” she repeats to Pepper.

“She isn’t,” Pepper says after a long silence and Christine relaxes. Thank _god_ she took her side.

“Excuse me, _what_?” Tony asks.

“Tony she has the perfect spot in your life to get whatever information she wanted, there is no reason for her to jeopardize that unless she’s telling the truth. Or she believes it’s the truth,” she adds. Christine gives her an annoyed look because that was uncalled for but whatever.

“Fine, give me whatever bullshit evidence you have,” Tony tells her and she goes off to her files, pulling everything out in chronological order and organizing it all for Tony to analyze.

*

Obadiah left one hell of a mess for Tony to clean, one he never would have known about if it weren’t for Christine. He was pissed off at her still and she had given him space for the most part since she laid everything out but it didn’t help. He wanted to talk to her and he also wanted her to go jump off a cliff. Mostly he decided to focus on his work, on figuring out what was going on and how to stop it. That had been the only contact he and Christine had for now- she was doing more digging into where his bombs were and when and reporting back. As much as it pissed him off to admit it she was good at her job, better than most really. She didn’t just look for something to sell like most journalists; she looked for a piece of the truth.

Unfortunately for him he had just been a pawn in her quest even if she tried to tell him that wasn’t true. At least she found something that was helpful even if she broke his damn heart to do it.

He’s in his office going over business plans that he hopes will please investors that were now losing their shit over his decision to stop selling weapons when the door to his office opens. He expects it to be Pepper but when he looks up he finds Christine standing there with a box and a guarded look on her face. As if _she_ was the one who had a right to be guarded here. “What do you want?” he asks, too tired to say much more.

She seems to take this as an invitation and she steps further into the room and drops the box she’s carrying on his desk. “Its everything even remotely relevant about me since birth. Including a lot of embarrassing things I’d rather forget,” she says, her cheeks turning just a _little_ red. Blushing was hardly her style and invading people’s lives wasn’t Tony’s.

“What the hell is this?” he asks, gesturing to the stupid box.

“This is making things even,” she says. She keeps her head higher than he would have if he were in her position. But then he probably had a lot more to be ashamed of.

“Making things even,” he repeats, “but what, having me go through all your life details? What’s what supposed to do, Christine, make us both feel equally betrayed and that’s supposed to fix things? What the fuck kind of logic is that?”

She sighs and sits down in one of the two chairs that sat opposite of his desk, chairs usually taken up by Obadiah and Pepper. “I meant what I said when I told you about all of this, Tony. I didn’t… it wasn’t a lie, not by the time things ended. I thought maybe this would make you feel better. Who doesn’t like a little karma?”

“ _I_ don’t like a little karma. Unlike _some_ people I have basic decency and respect and I don’t go snooping through their lives just because I feel like it. I could have, you know, long before you brought me any of this stuff but I didn’t because I’m not an asshole.” Well, not that kind of asshole but she knew what he meant.

Christine considers the box for a long moment before she nods and stands up, “I know it isn’t worth much Tony, but I am sorry,” she says and she leaves.

*

If Christine had to listen to another word from Justin Hammer’s mouth she was going to murder the man. But since her finding information on Tony failed, or more accurately she refused to write down that information, she was stuck trailing him around and he ate up the attention. If she thought Tony was an attention seeking arrogant jackass she was wrong, those labels were best left to Justin Hammer. Tony at least had substance beneath his façade- Justin Hammer wouldn’t know what substance if it bit him in the ass. The man was as deep as a puddle in Texas. At this point she was tempted to just run something about Tony to escape, it’s been a year since their last real encounter, he might not mind.

Hammer was so damn annoying that when he spots Tony at the bar of a restaurant and walks over she’s almost relieved. Tony might hate her, and for good reason, but even his scorn was preferable to Hammer’s yapping. He looks pleased with himself when he says that Christine is doing a spread on him, like it somehow makes him better than Tony when it one hundred percent does not. She once listened to a man order a Scandinavian dessert to be flown in from San Francisco, he was ridiculous. So was Tony but he was at least somewhat practical about it. And he didn’t have an annoying nasally voice.

“Oh?” Potts says, drawing Christine’s attention. “She did a spread on Tony last year too.” The comment is a pointed barb but Tony’s addition about her writing an article too was what made her roll her eyes at them both. Hammer mostly looks confused.

“So how’s this spread going?” Tony asks her, gesturing between her and Hammer. She has no idea if he’s referencing her writing or her legs so she chooses to make her answer ambiguous.

“Not nearly as fun as the one I did on you,” she says and Potts almost spits out her drink. Take _that_ Potts.

Tony laughs suddenly and judging from the look on his face unintentionally too. “Oh come on, Hammer seems fun,” he says, giving Hammer a look that suggested he absolutely didn’t agree.

“Maybe if I were a masochist,” she says and Tony lets out another involuntary laugh.

“Hey!” Hammer says in his own defense. He might have gone on but Tony interrupts.

“Look at that, I’m a more fun spread than Hammer. Who would have thought?” Tony says. His tone suggests that _he_ would have thought.

“What is it that started that infamous rivalry between you to begin with?” she asks in her reporter voice because she wasn’t above being petty and she just got an idea for revenge against Hammer.

“He used to steal my stuff in MIT!” Hammer blurts out before Tony has a chance to respond.

Tony throws his head back and laughs, “buddy I wouldn’t steal your shit if someone paid me to. He used to steal _my_ designs and tried to pass them off as his own. Also he stole my Cheetos in lecture once and I never forgave him,” Tony says.

It takes a full minute for Christine to realize he was serious. “He stole your designs but Cheetos was your limit?” she asks in an incredulous tone.

“No, he stole _my_ designs!” Hammer says and Christine rolls her eyes.

“Oh shut up, we both know you’re lying. I’d say you’re a low rent Tony Stark but that’s offensive to Tony and all of his low rent wannabes. The Cheetos, Tony?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

“They were my favorite food in college,” he says, shrugging.

“Cheetos are disgusting,” she tells him, wrinkling her nose.

“You’re disgusting,” Tony says, taking a weird amount of offense to her insult towards his favorite food in college.

“Not more disgusting than Cheetos,” she shoots back immediately.

“Are so,” Tony mumbles more to himself than her. It was childish but it was also amusing so she smiles despite herself and shakes her head. Still not more annoying than Justin Hammer.

“Well I’m definitely better than a Cheeto,” Hammer says and Christine rolls her eyes.

“With that hideous fake tan you basically _are_ a Cheeto,” she tells him and Tony wrinkles his nose even as he laughs.

“You ruined them for me,” he complains and Christine shrugs.

“Not much to ruin, honestly. They’re cheese dusted Styrofoam.”

*

Tony is more than a little surprised when Pepper drops a magazine spread in from of him and he’s even more surprised when he realizes that the article it’s open to is Christine’s. He scans the first few lines and laughs, shaking his head at the scathing tone Christine had set for Hammer. A quick scan of the rest shows that she wrote about his rivalry with Tony, noting that Cheetos were Tony’s favorite food in college and then proceeded to compare Hammer to a Cheeto no less than ten times. It wasn’t her best work that’s for certain but after spending time with Justin Hammer he could see why she was left off her A game.

“What’s this?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at her. She was undeniably pleased about Christine being gone from his life so he was more than a little surprised to find that she’d hand him an article that she wrote.

“Call her,” she says and Tony snorts.

“Are you serious?” he asks, unsure whether or not he should laugh of feel betrayed.

“Yes I’m serious. She’s probably one of the only people in the world who’d be able to keep up with you,” she says.

Tony opens his mouth to respond and then shuts it, unsure how to respond. For a long moment he sits in silence until he remembered something Christine told him over a year ago now. “And what about you? You’ve been around way longer than her,” he points out. And she kept up just fine. Plus, according to Christine at least, she was in love with him not that he believed it for a second. Honestly he was convinced that Pepper was a lesbian but that’s just him.

Pepper shakes her head, “we were never meant to be in a relationship and we’re business partners now. That’d be messy. Call Christine,” she tells him and she turns to walk away.

“She hasn’t put her life on hold for me, Pepper,” he tells her as she goes and she pauses. He knew Christine even if it wasn’t as well as he liked to think. There was no way she’d sit there and pine over him for a year and a bit, it just wasn’t her style.

“No, she hasn’t. That doesn’t mean she isn’t interested,” Pepper says and she walks away.

*

Christine finds Pepper Potts in an upscale bar sitting in a corner alone with her beer. It might have been sad if Pepper didn’t look so regal doing it. She slips into a seat across from Pepper and the woman gives her a halfhearted glare, “can you even afford to be in here?” she asks.

“Probably not,” Christine admits, unashamed of her lower tax bracket. “Why did you tell Tony to call me? One, you hate me. Two, you’re in love with him. Why not just swoop in and pick up the pieces I left behind?” She gives Pepper the shrewd glare she gave all her sources when she wanted information and Pepper gives her a disdainful look back.

“I don’t hate you,” she says. It’s a deliberate topic change meant to draw Christine into asking the wrong questions, Pepper did this all the time with the media and Christine expected it, but she was curious nonetheless.

“Really? All those snide comments and glares certainly tell a different story,” she says.

Pepper sits back in her chair, “they were meant to scare you off from Tony. I knew you were nothing but bad news no pun intended,” she says.

“You weren’t wrong. That doesn’t mean you like me though,” Christine points out.

She nods, “true on both accounts. But I admire you, you’re bright, tenacious, you’re genuinely good at your job, and you are an _asshole_ ,” Pepper says in an oddly admiring tone. “I’m sure you know that I’m not one for being rude, even when I am it tends to be subtle and well spoken. You don’t bother with the formalities; you just go for it regardless of what people think. That’s impressive and it takes a lot of guts. It takes even more guts to call out a multibillionaire on his behavior and then insert yourself in his life to get information on him to further your career. And then outing yourself like that just because you wanted to do what was right,” she shakes her head, “that’s reckless. Tony could have destroyed you and you had to have known that.”

He could have, but he wouldn’t. Out of the people who betrayed him that day she was a relationship that lasted a few months, Obadiah was an old friend of his father’s and very much a father figure to Tony. He wasn’t about to pour efforts into ruining her life when he had Obadiah to deal with. He wouldn’t have bothered with her at all, actually, even if Obadiah had done nothing wrong. “I knew Tony wouldn’t do anything to me. He could, sure, if he wanted he could make sure that the only job I can get is one on a street corner but that isn’t really who he is.” That, and she’d probably find a way to make being a prostitute work for her too. She’s resourceful, she could do it. “And as far as being an asshole, well, the way I see it most of my coworkers can act like jackasses and no one says a thing. Why can’t I? I’m not in the business of always being pleasant because it makes men more comfortable.”

Women too, but less so than men usually. It got her a lot of flak but she didn’t care what people thought, she cared about doing her job right. Of course thanks to her disaster run-in with Tony and her fluff article on Hammer she was stuck writing _advice_ columns. So far she’s learned that people didn’t need advice, they needed reality checks. She was working on finding something good, something that would get her back out of this stupid writing rut but it was difficult.

Pepper laughs, “if only I could afford to do that. It doesn’t go so well if you’re unpleasant in my line of work,” she says, taking a sip of her beer.

“Sure it is. You can’t look me in the eye and tell me Tony is pleasant to work with with a straight face,” she says and Pepper laughs.

“That is true. I love him, I do, but he has the attention span of a brain damaged gnat.” Christine snorts and laughs at the joke because it was true, at least until Tony had an interest in something. Then he focused on it for _hours_ , days even.

But she had a good opening back into her original question so she takes it. “You do love him, any idiot with a pair of eyes knows it, so why try and get us back together?” she asks.

Pepper looks annoyed to have been outsmarted but she didn’t have much to worry about. Not many people had the mental capacity to do so. The woman was highly intelligent; you had to be to keep up with Tony. She sighs and sis back in her seat, “you would be better with him than me. It’s not something I want to admit but it’s true. I never would have called him out like you did because I know he’s a good man even if he’s done bad things. You know he’s a good man and you push him to be better. In my opinion that’s what he needs, that’s what’s better for him. That, and he’s miserable without you. He’d get over it eventually but I figured why should he have to if I could fix it?” she asks.

Christine sits back in her seat too, “cleaning up yet another mess for Tony. You really need to give himself more credit and stop acting like his mother. He doesn’t need you to clean up after him; he’s a big boy. And in this particular case I made this mess, it should be my job to clean it up,” she says. That pained her to admit but it was true and she was invested in telling the truth, she didn’t get to skirt it just because this time it involved admitting something unpleasant about her actions.

“I think you give Tony too much credit, he needs the help,” Pepper says.

Christine shakes her head though, “he handled all the media fallout from his decision to not make weapons anymore, all the media fallout from Obadiah, and all the media coverage of where the company was headed now and why. If he can handle that he can handle sex scandals and his own damn dry cleaning, Potts. Stop lowering yourself for him because he’s too lazy to do his own work and make him do it himself. You are worth more than that,” she says.

Pepper snorts, “from a woman who’s introduction to me was to insult me for picking up Tony’s dry cleaning? Color me amused,” she says and Christine laughs, shaking her head.

“I said it to piss you off. Nothing gets you the truth faster than pissing a person off. It backfired on me anyways because you implied that I was trash so,” she shrugs and Pepper lets out a small laugh.

“Wow, we acted like twits,” she says and Christine nods in agreement. “Well, for what it’s worth I didn’t mean it. I knew about your reputation and I didn’t want you to publish something that would hurt Tony.”

“Than maybe Tony shouldn’t have given me the ammunition. Anything I published would have been true; Pepper, and you know it. Stop trying to protect him from the inevitable just because you think he’s fragile. He isn’t, he’s a survivor and he’ll learn to deal. And you’ll have a much lighter workload,” she says.

Pepper nods, “so I will. Do you have anything planned for dinner tomorrow night?” she asks and Christine shakes her head. “Good, I hear you’re in a writing slump and I figure a piece on Tony Stark’s new business partner might get you out of it,” she says.

Christine sits straight up, “are you serious? Don’t play with me Pepper, I can take your rude comments but I am not going to take a shot at my career,” she warns.

“It’s real, Christine. I dread to see what anyone else would write anyways. So, want a tequila shot?” she asks.

*

Tony frowns at Pepper and, of all people, Christine curled up on his couch sleeping and smelling like an alcohol brewery. “Uh, why are you two on my couch?” he asks them even though they’re both out cold. Christine’s eyes flutter and her jostling wakes Pepper up. They both glare at Tony with the power only a hung over person could posses. “Threesome?” Tony says and Christine’s nose wrinkles.

“You are _deplorable_ , Stark,” she snaps and drops her head back on Pepper’s chest.

He gives Pepper a hopeful look and she rolls her eyes, “if you ever proposition me for sex again I will quit and you can figure out how to make your own coffee,” she threatens.

“He can make his own damn coffee anyways, he’s a grown man!” Christine mumbles.

“Excuse you, I can make my own coffee I just always get grinds in it somehow. I would do just fine,” he says in his own defense.

“Maybe your own lattes too,” Pepper says and Tony gasps in horror.

“No, don’t do that,” he says softly but with meaning. Pepper and Christine ignore him so he decides to order some hangover foods for them mostly because he needed Pepper for some paperwork later that couldn’t wait. He half missed having Obadiah around just because he did most of the paperwork and Tony hated reading and signing legal shit.

When the food gets there it takes all of twelve seconds for Christine and Pepper to clamor to their feet to come and investigate. Tony tries to withhold the food so he could bribe Pepper with it but Christine gives him a _look_ so he hands it over before he loses his life. The sausage wasn’t worth it. Pepper snatches her own food and gives him the same murderous look Christine had when he goes to open his mouth. He figures it’s best to go make coffee but Pepper stops him.

“I’m not drinking grinds because you don’t know how to measure,” she tells him, setting her food aside briefly to make the coffee. Tony stands next to her feeling like a tit on a log while Christine practically inhales her breakfast. He hoped she ate before drinking or she’s going to feel like shit all day. With the coffee running Pepper returns to her food and Tony stands around awkwardly in his own damn house for a few moments.

“Um… how did you and Pepper meet up?” he asks eventually. They were an unlikely pair to say the least.

“I wanted to know why she told me to call you,” Christine says. “Then we bonded a little and got drunk.”

That was wholly unexpected. “I am a field of questions right now,” Tony says honestly.

Christine smiles, “when that coffee is ready I’ll talk. For now I feel like there’s a mining company digging for diamonds in my brain.” Tony turns to Pepper and she shrugs.

“Christine had good career tips. And I figured someone had to write about your new business partner. Why not her?” Pepper asks.

Tony frowns, “oh, I don’t know, maybe because you hate her guts?” Pepper wasn’t snide or petty, but she was both of those things to Christine.

“I don’t hate her Tony, I was suspicious of her and I was right. But she dealt with that herself and I think she’s remorseful and you two made a good pair before she messed it all up,” she says. Despite the content of her words she doesn’t say it with malice in her voice. She was just stating facts.

“Technically Obadiah messed it up,” Tony says in Christine’s defense.

“Don’t,” Christine tells him and he looks at her. “Don’t try and skirt my responsibility in this just because you’re not as angry as you were when this first happened. Forgiving me doesn’t mean acting like I did nothing wrong. I did do something wrong and I’m sorry for that, I never should have toyed with your feelings like I did. Or at the very least I should have told you the truth when it became obvious that you had feelings. Or that I had feelings. Regardless it wasn’t right,” she says, shaking her head and leaning against the counter in what looked like exhaustion. “Also sorry for being an asshole to you, Pepper,” she says.

Pepper shrugs, “I was hardly pleasant back. Like I said last night, we both acted like fools.”

Christine cracks a smile despite looking like she wanted to die. “We did. Last night was fun though, we should do it again,” she says.

“If you mention alcohol in my vicinity ever again I will ensure take that story I’m giving you back, Everhart.” Christine looks offended and Tony laughs.

“Nice to see that you two kissed and made up. You two should be best friends now; it’d be the best, seriously. The world is not ready for you two and I think that that makes this even better,” Tony says enthusiastically. Pepper’s sharp intelligence paired with Christine’s pointed words would make for one _hell_ of a friendship.

“I’m sure we’ll get along just fine,” Pepper says primly, “at least provided that I never have to go near another tequila shot ever again.”

“We’ll see,” Christine says and Pepper shudders.

*

Christine knew Tony was forgiving at least in some capacity but she didn’t realize just how forgiving he was. Her knowledge of the man mostly told her that indiscretions were likely to be forgiven but betrayals less so. Howard and Obadiah were key points in her knowledge there- Tony didn’t seem fond of forgiving either one. The difference, Tony had told her when she asked, was that she knew what she did. He also gave her the box of her life back untouched, she knew because she put things in a certain way and there was no way Tony would have though to put it all back the same way. Bonus points to him for being more decent than she had been.

“So,” Tony asks, “how did the press conference with Pepper go?”

She smiles, “well. No one understood my line of questioning and Pepper caught on right away. This is a pretty fun game, you know.” Pepper might have backed off of Tony’s life quite a bit thanks to Christine telling her that Tony was a bog boy and needed to learn how to get through life as a big boy but she still handled the press. Thanks to their new friendship and her relationship with Tony she had knowledge most reporters didn’t so she and Pepper have started a new game of what she called reporter tag. She’d ask some obscure question, Pepper would figure out what she was really asking, and then they’d spend the next twenty minutes playing cat-and-mouse with the information. Sometimes Christine got it, sometimes she didn’t. Either way it was fun.

“Glad that you’re able to amuse yourselves instead of trying to bite each other’s heads off,” Tony tells her, smiling.

“Me too, it would be exhausting to have to put up with that and both of us have better things to do than fight over you of all things,” she tells him.

“Yeah you do, like writing something abut how much Justin Hammer sucks?” Tony asks in a hopeful tone.

“Oh no, the last time I wrote about him I got stuck writing advice columns, he’s cursed. I’m writing about politics now and that’s how I like it,” she says.

“Me too, you chasing after Brock Rumlow and asking about his connections to the KKK is hilarious because the more he says the deeper he digs his own hole. _But_ I have it on good word that Hammer has discovered a guy that’s _almost_ as good at tech as I am and he’s trying to use him to copy all my designs to sell them. Which would be good coverage for you and some sweet, sweet karma for me,” he says.

Christine laughs and asks for his sources even though she knows she shouldn’t go near it with a ten foot pole. What could she say? She had a soft spot for Tony. Well, more like a sort of more squishy part for him. She didn’t do soft.

It turned out that Tony was right anyways and when she finds Vankov she decides he and Tony should hang out because he had only agreed to help Hammer if he got him his freaking bird from Russia. He and Tony could hang out and discuss how outrageous they were while she and Pepper had beer and talked about SI’s stocks. The story that resulted from it also happened to do well so she didn’t get stuck writing advice columns, thank god. She’d have to tell someone that no, they couldn’t just treat their friend like crap and ditch them for their new boyfriend without the friend being rightfully upset and things like that just didn’t sell well no matter how true it was. It was for the best really, she doubted Tony wanted to hear her real advice any more than the recipient of the message would.

And Brock Rumlow still skirted all her questions, much to Tony's amusement.

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://tenspencerriedplease.tumblr.com/)


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